Characteristics of inconsistent responders to prophylaxis therapy with lomerizine in patients with migraine: A retrospective study in Japan

Although lomerizine is used as a first-line prophylactic drug for migraines in Japan, approximately 30% of patients fail to respond to this treatment. On the basis of medical records, we investigated the involvement of clinical factors in response to lomerizine used in patients with migraine as primary headache and established a scoring system for predicting clinical responses to prophylactic therapy. Ninety-four consistent responders and 33 inconsistent responders to lomerizine were enrolled in this study. Multivariate stepwise logistic regression analysis revealed that migraine plus tension-type headache as primary headache and frequency of headache attacks were significant factors that contributed independently to negative response [odds ratio, 3.817 (no vs. yes; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.264–11.628) and 5.814 (> 15 episode days/month vs. 0–14 episode days/month; 95% CI, 2.381–14.286), respectively]. The predictive index (PI) of clinical responses to lomerizine in patients with migraine was calculated using the regression coefficients of two factors as an integer, where the score for inconsistent responders (1.00 ± 0.71) was significantly higher than that for consistent responders (0.37 ± 0.53, p < 0.001). Sensibility of the low-scoring group (PI = 0) was 75.8%, and specificity of the high-scoring group (PI = 2) was 97.9%. Groups scoring low, intermediated and high included 11.6%, 35.4% and 80.0% of inconsistent responders, respectively. The PI value obtained might represent an appropriate scoring system to predict responses in these patients.